Sunshine Coast Councils Crack Down on Stolen Rental Property Photos

Sunshine Coast Council's planning and compliance team confirmed this week it has received more than 40 formal complaints since June 1 from residents and property managers reporting fraudulent or duplicated images being used to advertise short-term rental properties across platforms including Airbnb and Stayz. The complaints span listings purporting to represent properties in Minyama, Buddina and the Maroochydore esplanade strip, addresses that inspectors have since confirmed bear little resemblance to the photographs used.

The timing matters. Queensland's new short-term rental registration framework, which came into force on January 1, 2026, requires all platform-listed properties to carry a unique registration number, but enforcement gaps around image authenticity have left a loophole that bad actors are actively exploiting. With the Sunshine Coast's short-term rental market under sustained pressure, driven by a coastal population boom that has pushed residential vacancy rates below 1.2 percent for most of the past 18 months, fraudulent listings are not merely a consumer nuisance. They are displacing legitimate accommodation supply and eroding trust in a sector worth an estimated $380 million annually to the local visitor economy.

What Happened This Week

On Tuesday, the Real Estate Institute of Queensland's Sunshine Coast chapter met with council representatives at the Maroochydore City Hall precinct to formalise a data-sharing arrangement. Under the agreement, member agencies will flag duplicate listing images to a shared register, cross-referencing photographs against a database maintained by the council's Compliance and Regulatory Services branch. The register is expected to be operational by August 15.

Separately, Sunshine Coast Airport's tourism development office confirmed it has been in contact with Tourism and Events Queensland about the reputational damage fraudulent listings could cause to international visitors arriving on the recently expanded Singapore Airlines and Air New Zealand routes out of Sunshine Coast Airport. Officials flagged that visitor complaints about accommodation misrepresentation have increased 28 percent in the first half of 2026 compared with the same period last year.

The problem is particularly acute in Noosa Heads and Caloundra, where high-demand holiday precincts have attracted the bulk of fraudulent activity. In one case reviewed by this masthead, a two-bedroom unit listed near Bulcock Beach in Caloundra used photographs from a Gold Coast property, complete with a different suburb's skyline visible from the balcony. The listing ran for 11 days and collected $3,200 in deposits before the hosting platform removed it following a complaint lodged through the new Queensland Fair Trading online portal.

What Property Managers and Renters Should Do Now

The REIQ is advising anyone booking short-term accommodation on the Sunshine Coast to use the Queensland Government's short-term rental register, accessible through the Department of Housing and Public Works website, to verify that a listing's registration number matches the advertised address before paying a deposit. The council's own Compliance and Regulatory Services team, reachable through the Sunshine Coast Council contact centre on 07 5475 7272, can also cross-check whether a specific address holds a valid approval under the planning scheme's short-term accommodation provisions.

For property managers, the REIQ is recommending watermarking all professional listing photographs with the property address and registration number, a practice already standard in several major Brisbane agencies. Software tools that scan platforms for duplicate image usage are available from around $80 per month for a single-agency licence, and several Maroochydore-based agencies have already adopted them.

Council says its compliance team will complete a full audit of active Airbnb and Stayz listings within the local government area by September 30. Any listing found using fraudulent or duplicated images that does not match the registered property will be referred to Queensland Fair Trading for potential penalties of up to $15,220 per offence under the Australian Consumer Law. Residents who suspect a fraudulent listing can also report directly to the ACCC's Scamwatch platform online.